punk

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
punk/pʌŋk/

▶noun

• 1 (also punk rock) a loud, fast-moving, and aggressive form of rock music, popular in the late 1970s.

  ■ (also punk rocker) an admirer or player of punk music.

• 2 N. Amer. informal a worthless person.

  ■ a thug or criminal.

• 3 US informal (in prison slang) a passive male homosexual.

• 4 chiefly N. Amer. soft, crumbly wood that has been attacked by fungus, used as tinder.

▶adjective

• 1 relating to punk rock and its associated subculture.

• 2 N. Amer. informal bad; worthless.

– derivatives
punkish adjective,
punky adjective (punkier, punkiest).

– origin C17: perh., in some senses, rel. to archaic punk ‘prostitute’, also to spunk.